"Come, come," said Tom's father, "at your time of life,There's no longer excuse for thus playing the rake--It is time you should think, boy, of taking a wife.""Why, so it is father--whose wife shall I take?"

Oft, in the stilly night,Ere Slumber's chain has bound me,Fond Memory brings the lightOf other days around me;The smiles, the tears,Of boyhood's years,The words of love then spoken;The eyes that shone,Now dimm'd and gone,The cheerful hearts now broken!

Oh, ever thus, from childhood's hour,I 've seen my fondest hopes decay;I never loved a tree or flowerBut 't was the first to fade away.I never nurs'd a dear gazelle,To glad me with its soft black eye,But when it came to know me wellAnd love me, it was sure to die.

Believe me, if all those endearing young charmsWhich I gaze on so fondly to-day,Were to change by to-morrow and fleet in my arms,Like fairy gifts fading away.Thou wouldst still be adored as this moment thou art,Let thy loveliness fade as it will,And around the dear ruin each wish of my heart,Would entwine itself verdantly still.